CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture) are local farm co-ops or
subscriptions ... you pay a yearly or quarterly fee in exchange for
a share of the agriculture products produced in your area. You can
narrow it down to say, dairy and vegetables, or whatever.

Many farms offer produce subscriptions, where buyers receive a
weekly or monthly basket of produce, flowers, fruits, eggs, milk,
meats, or any sort of different farm products.

A CSA, (for Community Supported Agriculture) is a way for the food
buying public to create a relationship with a farm and to receive a
weekly basket of produce. By making a financial commitment to a
farm, people become "members" (or "shareholders," or "subscribers")
of the CSA. Most CSA farmers prefer that members pay for the season
up-front, but some farmers will accept weekly or monthly payments.
Some CSAs also require that members work a small number of hours on
the farm during the growing season.

A CSA season typically runs from late spring through early fall. The
number of CSAs in the United States was estimated at 50 in 1990, and
has since grown to over 2000.

As much as I would love him to, Dad can't carry on farming
forever, so I recently decided it was time to return to what I think
of as the most beautiful spot on Earth.
I was under no illusion that being a farmer would be easy, but last
year's fuel crisis, with oil prices continually rising, was a wake-
up call for me.

Our costs went through the roof - animal feed, diesel for the
tractors, agricultural contractor bills - but the biggest rise was
in the price of fertiliser. We use very little chemical fertiliser,
but many farms were driven to bankruptcy.

With this in mind, I decided to make one last BBC documentary to
find out if, and how, modern farming could survive the 21st Century.

Corn diet is turning French hamsters into erratic cannibals 
research Published time: 28 Jan, 2017 04:28 Edited time: 28 Jan, 2017
14:35
...
The corn-eating hamsters also had large, swollen tongues and blood so
thick it was difficult for scientists to test. They behaved
differently too, running in circles and climbing and pounding their
feeders.
Improperly cooked maize-based diets have been associated with higher
rates of homicide, suicide and cannibalism in humans, the scientists
added.
The reason the hamsters were acting so strangely was due to a Vitamin
B3 deficiency as a result of their corn-heavy diet. When hamsters were
given the added Vitamin B3 with the corn diet, the hamsters didnt eat
their children, and didnt experience the other disturbing effects.
Knowing that these species already face many threats, and that most
of them are in danger of extinction, it is urgent to restore a diverse
range of plants in agriculture schemes, the researchers said.
"https://www.rt.com/news/375370-corn-hamsters-cannibals-france/?
utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS"